In task force report, UMDNJ faces third call to merge with Rutgers University in a decade

Gov. Chris Christie commissioned a task force, which has recommended the merging of Rutgers University and UMDNJ.

NEWARK — A task force headed by former Gov. Tom Kean proposed sweeping changes Tuesday to the structure and financing of New Jersey’s higher education system while reviving a controversial proposal to add a medical school to Rutgers University.

The New Jersey Higher Education Task Force unveiled its 133-page report at a press conference with Gov. Chris Christie in Trenton. Kean, the former president of Drew University, said New Jersey must stop slashing funding to its colleges and begin reforming its higher education system.

"If we don’t do this, we’re going to see a continuing decline not only in higher education but in the state as a whole," Kean said.

The report makes more than 70 recommendations, including calls for the appointment of a new secretary of higher education, increased funding for the state’s colleges and universities and an immediate stop to the tuition caps imposed by the governor and the Legislature.

Christie followed through on one of the report’s recommendations Tuesday, creating a Governor’s Higher Education Council to advise him on college issues. He also formed a second task force to explore the report’s most controversial recommendation: A merger of Rutgers with part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

The report recommended folding two of UMDNJ’s eight schools — Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the School of Public Health — into Rutgers. Adding the Piscataway-based medical school to the state’s largest university would establish a "first-class comprehensive university-based health science center in New Jersey," according to the task force’s recommendations.

Christie acknowledged the new report marks the third time in less than a decade a state task force has recommended merging all or part of UMDNJ with Rutgers. The previous attempts — in 2003 under Gov. James E. McGreevey and in 2006 under Gov. Jon Corzine — fizzled after the merger idea was met with skepticism by the governing boards at Rutgers and UMDNJ and resistance among Essex County politicians.

Christie said this time he is uniquely positioned to reform UMDNJ because he oversaw the corruption investigations at the troubled Newark-based school while he was U.S. attorney.

"You have a governor now who understands UMDNJ better than most of my predecessors," Christie said. "I understand the institution and its issues and I’m already committed to transformation."

Rutgers President Richard McCormick praised the idea of folding Robert Wood Johnson Medical School into the 56,000-student state university.

The medical school was founded as Rutgers Medical School in 1961, but merged into the newly-formed UMDNJ a few years later and changed its name.

"Such a union would create a national academic powerhouse that would significantly enhance the quality and profile of New Jersey higher education and would benefit residents across the entire state," McCormick said in a statement.

UMDNJ officials were less excited about the idea of losing two of their best schools to Rutgers.

"We are confident that a comprehensive review of UMDNJ and its missions will support maintaining our current structure and underscore our strengths as a statewide asset for New Jersey and its residents," spokesman Jeffrey Tolvin said in a statement.

The report calls for the remainder of UMDNJ to be "fundamentally transformed," though it does not give any specifics on what should happen to New Jersey Medical School, University Hospital in Newark and the school’s other institutions.

Montclair State University President Susan Cole said she hopes the proposed UMDNJ-Rutgers merger does not overshadow the rest of the task force’s proposals. Cole has been pushing for several recommendations in the report, including a bond issue for higher education and reforms in how the state divides funding among the public colleges.

"I, for one, am very much looking forward to step two," Cole said. "I don’t think Gov. Christie would have gone forward with this task force if he didn’t intend to act."

Other higher education officials were combing the report on Tuesday, hopeful the task force will inspire the state to make lasting changes.

"At first blush, the recommendations squarely address many of the areas where we, in New Jersey, have danced around issues or improvised for far too long — the need for state support for facilities, for example," said Darryl Greer, head of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities.

RECOMMENDATIONS REQUIRE LEGISLATION

Kean said the task force conducted hundreds of interviews before it came up with its recommendations. The small committee included several veteran higher education officials, including longtime Thomas Edison State College President George Pruitt.

It is unclear how the state’s troubled finances will affect the task force’s recommendations. In Christie’s first year in office, the state colleges and universities were hit with steep state funding cuts and a 4-percent cap on tuition hikes.

Imposing the tuition cap at the four-year public colleges last year may have been a mistake, the governor said Tuesday. Colleges should be able to set their own tuition, negotiate their own labor contracts and control their own costs.

Nearly all of the major changes proposed by the task force will require legislation. Several state lawmakers said they were happy to review the report. But they stopped short of endorsing any of the panel’s key recommendations — including any major changes at UMDNJ or Rutgers.

"Obviously, any plan to merge Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will require an extensive analysis to gauge its impact not only on higher education, but on health care in our state," said Assembly Higher Education Chairwoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden).